County engineer plans for roads, bridges

XENIA — Greene County Engineer Bob Geyer presented his 2018 Road and Bridge Program to the Board of Commissioners Jan. 4, detailing $9.3 million worth of plans that include highway maintenance, construction on bridges and a traffic signal upgrade.

According to Geyer, one bridge project on the list is a fairly new surprise to him — a bridge that hadn’t been inspected or improved since 1988.

Geyer said the bridge on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road at Interstate 675 in Beavercreek was annexed to the City of Fairborn in 1985. The bridge is 0.01 of a mile from Fairborn corporation limits. Three years later, the county engineer told Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to take the bridge off the county’s inventory and place it on Fairborn’s inventory.

“Apparently someone dropped the ball,” he said. “So that bridge has basically sat since 1988, unmaintained, uninspected by any jurisdiction.”

Due to confusion as to which jurisdiction was responsible for the bridge, it’s in need of some improvements three decades later.

“It’s in bad shape,” Geyer said, estimating the project at half a million dollars. “The outside four foot of the bridge on both sides is completely gone. There’s nothing there but gravel being held up by the rebar.”

A grant from ODOT will contribute $200,000 to the project for safety improvements while the county will be responsible for the other $300,000.

Geyer said he’s working with a consultant to rehabilitate the bridge this summer or fall.

“We’re going to get it done,” he said.

Other bridges on the list include a bridge on South Street in Cedarville, which will have its stone arch replaced with a concrete arch and its single lane widened into two lanes. A bridge on Upper Bellbrook Road will also see some improvements including painting and patching.

Highway construction also includes overlay, chip seal and microsurfacing a total of 40 miles for $1.92 million.

The total cost and number of miles is up from 2017.

According to Geyer, pavement used to have a lifespan of 10 years, but now it lasts around six or seven years, causing an increase in the amount to pave. Geyer said he and his team travel the roads to monitor issues — like cracking, potholes and maintenance — to decide when to repave.

“Summer is spent trying to decide what we’re going to do. After this winter, we’ll evaluate the roads again — we may delete or add some roads — depending on the winter. Winter can make a big difference in how a road looks after a year.”